epidemic. The last rinderpest death in South Africa was in 1903 (Vogel and Heyne
1996). Fortunately, the disease is tractable to vaccination, and large-scale consistent
vaccination and surveillance campaigns led to a reduction in disease occurrence and
finally in 2011 rinderpest was officially declared eradicated globally. A key component of this campaign was perhaps counter-intuitively the decision to stop wide-scale
vaccination once a few disease pockets were left in order to detect outbreaks of the
disease more easily (de Swart et al. 2012). Cattle in such pockets were then either
vaccinated or culled. The success of this campaign essentially relates to the removal
of a supply of accessible and susceptible hosts which can act as transmission sources.
10.3 Human Diseases
Whilst humans are often the source or cause of invasive diseases, they can also be
their victims. Both rabies and BTB are zoonotic diseases (i.e. infectious diseases that
can be transmitted between animals and humans), which can cause severe illness and
fatalities in people in the same manner that they do in other mammal species.
South African history has also been shaped by outbreaks of human diseases that
have made an indelible mark on society.
10.3.1 Smallpox
Smallpox was a global scourge and was most likely introduced to South Africa by
early travellers and settlers from Europe. Devastation of indigenous people followed.
As for rinderpest and measles, a very effective vaccine is available, and concerted
efforts led to the global eradication of smallpox in 1980, the first infectious disease to
be formally declared as eradicated (Breman and Arita 1980; Strassburg 1982).
Smallpox was an ailment unfamiliar to the indigenous people of the Cape when
European settlers first arrived. Several Khoekhoe leaders in a statement to the
governor of the Cape in 1678 stated that “no particularly severe sicknesses are
known among them, and Death usually contents himself with old worn out people.”
Unfortunately, this meant that these indigenous people had no acquired immunity to
diseases brought to their shores by immigrants. Reports of large outbreaks of disease
among the Khoekhoe were recorded beginning in the second half of the seventeenth
century, causing many deaths and causing the affected groups to move from place to
place, attempting unsuccessfully to flee the disease (Moodie and Smith 1960). The
largest outbreak of smallpox came in 1713, and it proved to be disastrous for the
Khoekhoe people who had already suffered disease outbreaks, as well as having had
their community and social structures disrupted by colonists (Phillips 2012). A large
percentage of the population of Khoekhoe died within 6 months of the beginning of
the outbreak, with some groups reporting mortalities of up to 90% (Ross 1977).
Abandoned settlements and livestock occurred wherever the outbreak had struck.
Subsequent outbreaks in the eighteenth century penetrated further into the interior,
262
L. van Helden et al.
1996). Fortunately, the disease is tractable to vaccination, and large-scale consistent
vaccination and surveillance campaigns led to a reduction in disease occurrence and
finally in 2011 rinderpest was officially declared eradicated globally. A key component of this campaign was perhaps counter-intuitively the decision to stop wide-scale
vaccination once a few disease pockets were left in order to detect outbreaks of the
disease more easily (de Swart et al. 2012). Cattle in such pockets were then either
vaccinated or culled. The success of this campaign essentially relates to the removal
of a supply of accessible and susceptible hosts which can act as transmission sources.
10.3 Human Diseases
Whilst humans are often the source or cause of invasive diseases, they can also be
their victims. Both rabies and BTB are zoonotic diseases (i.e. infectious diseases that
can be transmitted between animals and humans), which can cause severe illness and
fatalities in people in the same manner that they do in other mammal species.
South African history has also been shaped by outbreaks of human diseases that
have made an indelible mark on society.
10.3.1 Smallpox
Smallpox was a global scourge and was most likely introduced to South Africa by
early travellers and settlers from Europe. Devastation of indigenous people followed.
As for rinderpest and measles, a very effective vaccine is available, and concerted
efforts led to the global eradication of smallpox in 1980, the first infectious disease to
be formally declared as eradicated (Breman and Arita 1980; Strassburg 1982).
Smallpox was an ailment unfamiliar to the indigenous people of the Cape when
European settlers first arrived. Several Khoekhoe leaders in a statement to the
governor of the Cape in 1678 stated that “no particularly severe sicknesses are
known among them, and Death usually contents himself with old worn out people.”
Unfortunately, this meant that these indigenous people had no acquired immunity to
diseases brought to their shores by immigrants. Reports of large outbreaks of disease
among the Khoekhoe were recorded beginning in the second half of the seventeenth
century, causing many deaths and causing the affected groups to move from place to
place, attempting unsuccessfully to flee the disease (Moodie and Smith 1960). The
largest outbreak of smallpox came in 1713, and it proved to be disastrous for the
Khoekhoe people who had already suffered disease outbreaks, as well as having had
their community and social structures disrupted by colonists (Phillips 2012). A large
percentage of the population of Khoekhoe died within 6 months of the beginning of
the outbreak, with some groups reporting mortalities of up to 90% (Ross 1977).
Abandoned settlements and livestock occurred wherever the outbreak had struck.
Subsequent outbreaks in the eighteenth century penetrated further into the interior,
262
L. van Helden et al.